Preparing Your Mix For Breakneck

How your session is set up when you bounce a premaster greatly effects the options during mastering. To achieve the best results , please ensure that you:

Provide a balanced mix

Our engineers have great tools and techniques to change and improve the overall tone and dynamics of your music. However, the level of individual sounds cannot be changed at the mastering stage. It is therefore important to ensure that the levels in your mix are consistent and balanced.

For the best results we suggest having your track professionally mixed. For more information please visit our page: Breakneck Mixing.

Take off any limiting on the master buss

Limiting can be very damaging to audio when misused. Once a track has been limited, it is very hard to get the dynamics back. By leaving the limiter off, and allowing 3-6db of headroom, the engineer can apply the correct amount of limiting after processing your track.

Remove any mastering style eq or compression on the master buss

The Breakneck studios are equipped with the highest quality, mastering grade signal processors. By leaving the master bus clean, you are providing the engineer a blank canvas to shape and lift the track with the best gear in a treated environment.

Provide a high quality format

When bouncing your music out of any DAW you will be given a number of options to determine the quality of the file you are printing. Although MP3's are great for sending online and even to play on radio and in clubs, it is important to ensure the files you send for mastering are the highest quality so changes are made to the track in it's most true and raw form.

Your premaster should be:

A WAV or AIFF file - both are the same quality and equally acceptable.

24 bit - this ensures the file is full quality and has the appropriate headroom for mastering.

44.1khz or 48khz sample rate - most electronic music is run at 44.1 khz although some producers like to work with 48 or even 96 khz which are also fine. If in doubt, bounce your premaster at 44.1, a very common sample rate which is fine for mastering.

By following these simple steps you can save time, greatly increase the options available to the engineer during the session and improve the overall quality of the final product.